China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced that China’s crude steel outputs amounted to 73.75 million mt in September, down 21.2% compared to the same month last year.

The production of iron ore was 65.19 million mt in the same month, down 16.1%, and finished steel products was 101.95 million mt 14.8% on year-on-year.

At the same time, a sharp drop in production was observed compared to August as crude steel production declined by 11.4%, iron ore production was down by 8.86% and production of finished steel products declined by 6.3%.

Production restrictions and power supply limits exerted a negative impact on steel output in September.

In the January-September period of this year, China produced 805.89 million mt of crude steel, an increase of 2.0% and a decline of 3.3% compared to the first eight months of this year.

Total iron ore output in the first nine months of this year amounted to 671.07 million mt, down 1.3 % year on year, compared to a growth rate of 0.6% in the first eight months of this year.

Total production of finished steel products in the same period was 1.02 billion mt, up 4.6% year on year, with a decline in growth of 2.7 % from that recorded in the January-August period.